Ntsu Mokhehle

Who is Ntsu Mokhehle?

Ntsu Mokhehle was a Basotho politician, biologist, and pan-Africanist who became one of the founding figures of modern Lesotho's independence movement. Born in 1918 in the Mount Moorosi area, he trained as a biology teacher and lecturer before turning to politics, founding the Basutoland African Congress (BAC) in 1952, the territory's first major nationalist party, modeled in part on the African National Congress and calling for an end to colonial rule. The party was later renamed the Basotho Congress Party (BCP). Mokhehle lost Lesotho's first post-independence election in 1965 to Leabua Jonathan's Basotho National Party, and spent much of the following decades in opposition, exile, and at times underground activity, including association with the Lesotho Liberation Army during periods of political repression. After decades of struggle, the BCP finally won power in Lesotho's 1993 elections, and Mokhehle became Prime Minister, serving until 1998 (with the party splitting into the Lesotho Congress for Democracy partway through his term). His premiership was marked by the restoration of multiparty democracy after years of military and one-party rule, though also by the political instability that led to the 1998 crisis shortly after he left office. He died in 1999, remembered as a central figure in Lesotho's long struggle for democratic governance.

Sources: Richard F. Weisfelder, Political Contention in Lesotho, 1952-1965 (1999) · Roger Southall & Tsoeu Petlane (eds.), Democratisation and Demilitarisation in Lesotho (1995) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Ntsu Mokhehle"